It's All in the Family on Biggest Loser Finale

Michelle Aguilar wins the $250,000 grand prize on the season finale of The Biggest Loser: Families

By Natalie Finn Dec 17, 2008 3:39 AMTags
The Biggest LoserDave Bjerke/NBC

Twelve weeks and hundreds of pounds later, the scales tipped in favor of only one contestant on Tuesday's finale of The Biggest Loser: Families.

Find out who viewers dismissed immediately, and who got to stick around to collect the $250,000 grand prize...

This was a mother-daughter reunion for the books.

Michelle Aguilar, who entered the competition with her once-estranged mom, Renee Wilson, was declared the Biggest Loser after dropping 45.45 percent of her starting body weight of 242 pounds.

Trae Patton/NBC

Meaning, the lovely 26-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, weighed in at 132 pounds on tonight's two-hour live finale. She beat out 31-year-old Ed Brantley, a chef from North Carolina, and 37-year-old Vicky Vilcan from Louisiana.

The runners-up didn't do too shabbily, though, with Ed going from 335 to 196 pounds and Vicky whittling down from 246 to 145 pounds.

The winner was determined not by number of pounds shed but by percentage of body weight lost.

"We went through a lot, but it was all—all—worth it," Michelle said before learning she had made the most progress, percentage-wise.

But though three were on hand for the final weigh-in, the night started off with four big losers still hoping for a shot at the big money.

First off, with Ed and his wife, Heba Salama, both falling below the yellow line last week, it was up to America to choose between them—and 84 percent went with Ed.

Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

"Everything happens for a reason," said Heba, who had urged viewers to vote for her while Ed had suggested they support his better half (aw). "We have been so lucky to be on this show...If people voted my husband in, it is what it is, and we are winners tonight, no matter what."

At 294 pounds, Heba was the show's heaviest female contestant, and she ended up dropping nearly half her body weight.

And what a night it still was for her and her hubby: The 30-year-old from Raleigh, N.C., lost 138 pounds and won the consolatory $100,000 "at home" prize for losing a higher percentage of weight—53.06 percent—than all those previously eliminated from competition.

Stories were shared, tears were shed and before-and-after weights were oohed and aahed over as the season's 14 other contestants also came back to show off their healthier physiques. There was nary a dry eye in the house as the slimmed-down bunch spoke of discarding once direly needed medications, reconnecting with their young children and securing a new lease on life after deciding that enough was enough.

The next season of the hit NBC series, The Biggest Loser: Couples, kicks off Jan. 6, featuring, among others, the show's oldest contestants, two spouses who are both 63; a 379-pound woman, who will be the largest female to ever compete; and a 19-year-old boy who will be the show's heaviest contestant of all time at 454 pounds.